Point Blank Midnight Memories
by Fallen Sky Singer
Summary: When a case goes from a simple murder to the kidnapping of a young girl, how far will the CSI's go to save the young spirit that taught them so much about life and friendship?
1. Default Chapter

I don't own CSI or it's characters......... yet maw ha ha.

Author's note~ This is going to be the first story in a series I'm writing about the CSI team, you'll see what makes it unique later on ;o)

  
  


Gil Grissom of the Las Vegas Criminalistics Graveyard shift stepped from the black Tahoe, a silver evidence case in his hand. He surveyed the scene. Several police cars surrounded a small warehouse including an ambulance. Jim Brass of the LVPD walked up to him.

"One dead." He said, "We've identified him as Philip Morrison."

"Who called it in?" Grissom asked, Brass pointed to a young woman who was talking Catherine Willows, a fellow CSI..

"She says she was out walking her dog by the warehouse when she saw the door was open and Morrison was inside."

"Did she touch him?" Grissom asked.

"She says she didn't, Warrick and Nick are inside checking for evidence, Catherine's talking to the woman and Sara is out back checking for any evidence she can find."

"What does it look like?" Grissom questioned.

"It's pretty clean, looks like the guy was beat up a bit first then shot," Brass said as they entered the warehouse. Warrick was off to the left checking for trace evidence while Nick was taking photos of a crumpled body laying on the floor, blood pooled around it.

"Hey Gris," Nick said as he looked up, "What took you so long?"

Grissom scowled at the younger CSI, "Traffic." He replied simply, "How far have you guys gotten?"

"We're close to being done." Warrick replied, "There was a lack of . . . Anything. Evidence included."

"Blood?" Grissom asked, but Warrick only shook his head.

"I'm guessing he was killed somewhere else. He was shot in the head but there's barely any blood at all."

"Well let's finish up here and get back to the lab. I want Doc Robbins to take a look at this one first chance he has."

"Why?" Warrick asked as he bagged a hair.

"Because I don't like it," Grissom replied.

"It's a murder," Nick said, "What's there to like?"

"Nothing," Grissom replied.

  
  


Hours later, back at the crime lab...

  
  


"Hey Greggo," Nicks head popped around the corner of the lab rats nest, "You paged me?"

"Yeah," Greg said, "But your not going to be happy."

"You didn't find anything?" Nick asked, slightly bewildered by this, "No matches, no nothing?"

"Nothing, at least nothing that will help you." I couldn't get any matches off of the partials you gave me. AFIS spit them out negative."

"What about the hair fibres?"

"Nothing," Greg answered, "I swear there's absolutely nothing."

"Great," Nick muttered, "Man Grissom isn't going to be happy about this."

"Your funeral," Greg shrugged.

"Thanks for your confidence, man."

"No problem," Greg said.

Nick began walking back towards Grissom's office, He nearly bumped into Sara.

Hey! Watch where your going Nicky!" Sara exclaimed, "You almost made me spill my relatively human sludge we call coffee!"

"Sorry," He muttered, "I'm in my own little world right now."

"And that's something new?" Sara asked, "Tell me what did the singing flowers tell you this time?"

Nick punched her lightly in the shoulder, "Going to see Grissom?" He asked.

"Yeah," Sara said, "He asked me to find out what care was used at the crime scene."

"There were tire marks?" Nick asked, 'I didn't see any."

"Warrick found them," She replied.

"Anything?"

"Nothing" She sighed, "The castings were to smudged to get anything out of them."

"Someone burned rubber to get out of there fast." Nick muttered.

"It would appear so." Sara replied.

The walked down the hall into Grissom's office, Warrick, Catherine and Brass were already there talking quietly among themselves.

"Well it's about time," Brass said, "The reporters have already gotten word about this and their spreading it around like the ebola from 'Outbreak'"

"That was a scary movie." Sara said.

"Do they know who died yet?" Catherine asked.

"No, fortunately. We're waiting for you guys so we can go inform the widow."

"Did Robbins find anything?" Warrick asked.

"Nothing," Grissom replied as he walked into his office, "At least nothing out of the ordinary, several broken ribs, died from a single gunshot wound to his right temple."

"Type of gun?" Sara asked.

"Looks like a .44 caliber but he's not sure yet, still has to remove the bullet."

"So now what? We go inform Mrs. Morrison?" Catherine asked.

"That and look through her house for evidence." Grissom replied.

"Spouse is always the most likely suspect, right?" Brass said.

"Not always," Grissom replied, "Just now."


	2. Chapter 2

Brass knocked on the door of a plain white Las Vegas suburb house, The CSI's stood behind him. At last a young woman in her late twenties opened the door.

"Yes?" She said, "Can I help you?"

"Anna Morrison?" Brass asked.

"Yes?" The lady replied.

"Jim Brass LVPD, may we come in?"

"Um, of course," Anna Morrison said, Brass and the forensic crew followed her into the living room, "Please sit down," Mrs. Morrison said as she motioned to the leather couches, "Can I get you anything?"

"No thank you ma'am," Brass said, "I'm afraid we have some bad news. Your husband was found earlier this morning, I'm afraid he's dead." 

Anna Morrison just sat there with a look of shock and pain etched on to her face.

"What... what happened?" She stammered as she tried to choke back tears, "I saw him yesterday, he was fine!"

"We believe he was murdered," Catherine said quietly. The new widow began shaking uncontrollably, tears streamed down her ghost white face.

"Oh my god." was all she could manage, over and over, "Oh my god."

"Mrs. Morrison, did... did you know if your husband had anyone that may want to hurt him?" Grissom asked.

Anna Morrison shook her head and wiped away the tears from her face, "My husband was a good man, very dedicated to work and to his family... to me." She managed to give a small smile.

"Where did your husband work?" Grissom asked quietly.

"At Morrison and Walker Securities, he was a stock broker." She explained slowly, "He and his friend David Walker started the business years ago."

"Where does David Walker live?" Catherine Asked.

"Down the road, 3156 Sunrise Avenue, but..." Mrs Morrison looked worried and trailed off, "The chance of him being home is slim to none."

"What do you mean?" Brass asked.

"Well it's not my place to gossip but David Walker is a bit insecure with everything in his life. He's rarely home, always at work but he'll leave home for weeks on end."

"Well it's not unusual for grown men to go on business trips." Brass said.

"Maybe," Mrs. Morrison replied, "But with a 14 year old daughter at home you'd think he would at least send her to a friends house when he goes off."

"He doesn't?" Grissom asked, Catherine's jaw dropped by this.

"He leaves her alone for weeks on end, in Las Vegas?' The mother said.

"Yes," Mrs. Morrison replied sadly, "He's been doing it since she was nine, Philip and I use to let her stay here when he was gone, it wasn't right for David to do it but he did all the same."

"Thank you very much, Mrs. Morrison." Brass said, "We'll let you know if we have any more questions."

  
  


A black Tahoe pulled into the driveway of a simple Las Vegas house. Lights glowed from the window but that was the only proof that anyone was home. Grissom and Brass stepped out of the front, Catherine and Sara came from the back and Warrick and Nick stepped out of the second Tahoe which pulled up behind the first.

Brass knocked on the door of the white washed house and waited. After a moment the door opened revealing a young girl with curly brown hair and ice blue eyes.

"Amy Walker?" Brass asked.

"Yes," The girl replied.

"I'm Jim Brass from the LVPD, is your dad home?"

"Noo," she replied, "You have a badge?"

Jim smiled as opened his jacket to reveal the shiny gold badge which showed his rank.

"Oh, sorry, just you never know who's lurking around at this time of night." The girl said, "And no he isn't home."

"May we come in? We need to discuss a few things with you."

"Um, sure." She said, "Come on in." The young girl led Brass and the CSI's into a medium sized living room, "Please sit down." She said, "Sorry about the mess, me and my friend Alex were busy working on a poetry project for school. Can i get you anything?"

"No thanks," Brass said, Amy shrugged and push the poster covered in different poems aside. Then She walked up to a small boom box and turned off the soft music that was playing.

"So what can I do for you guys?" the young girl asked as she sat down on a leather chair.

"When was the last time you saw your dad?" Brass asked.

"I don't know, maybe about a week and a half ago."

"Is he away a lot?" Grissom asked.

Amy nodded sadly, 'All the time, business trips I imagine."

"He doesn't tell you?"

"No," Amy replied, "Why would he? That would be a smart thing to do. And frankly I could care less where he goes." The CSI's all exchanged glances, Amy saw them. "Don't get me wrong," She said, "What your hearing isn't some normal teenage angst I have, he really isn't up for the father of the year award."

"How long is he usually gone for?" Catherine asked.

"I don't know, maybe three or four weeks at a time."

"He leaves you alone for that long?" Sara asked, "Doesn't that bother you?"

"Of course it does," Amy replied, "But I can't stop him. Besides I like being alone, the house stays cleaner with him gone."

"What about your mother?" Brass asked.

"She died when I was five," The girl said quietly, "I don't remember much about her so don't bother asking any questions."

"I'm sorry," Brass said, "Losing a loved one is always hard/ So how long has this been going on? With you being left alone for weeks on end."

"Since I was nine," Amy replied, the expressions the CSI's had put on made her smile, "Yeah I know, long time. But I get 200$ a month for food and clothing, it's more than enough to survive off of."

"And you spend it all on food and clothing?" Brass asked, raising an eyebrow slightly.

"Well not all of it," Amy said, "It's not like I need new clothes every month and I don't eat a helluva lot." She looked at the detective, " And IF you're suggesting that I might dip into drugs or something like that I'm afraid I'll have to call you incredibly stereotypical. I may be a teenager but that doesn't mean I listen to punk rock and go out every night and party and get high. Quite the opposite actually, I have no life, social or otherwise."

Sara nudged Brass in the ribs with her elbow, "Well that showed you." She whispered and laughed.

"Is my dad in some kind of trouble?" Amy asked.

Grissom sighed, he didn't want to tell her but now he had no choice, "Philip Morrison, your fathers partner, was found murdered earlier this evening."

"Oh my god," Amy said, "Is- is my dad a suspect?"

"Well with him missing like this is would appear so," Brass said, "But we don't want to worry you."

"I'm not worried," Amy said, "Just shocked. Mr. Morrison was a really nice guy, oh wow his wife must be heart broken."

"Did they seem happy?" Brass asked, "Did they ever fight?"

Amy shook her head, "Never, they were very happy together. He loved her and she adored him."

"Do you mind if we look around for evidence?" Brass asked, "We can get a warrant if you want."

Amy laughed, "Don't bother, I've got nothing to hide. Look around all you want."

"Thanks," Catherine said, "Alright Gil, where do you want us?"

"Sara, you and Warrick do the kitchen, Cath you and Nick take upstairs. I'll do the living room."

"Do you mind if I keep working on my project?" Amy asked, "It's due tomorrow, first block and I still have to write two more poems and paste all of them on."

"Not at all," Grissom said as he began looking over everything in the living room. There were five water colour paintings hanging on the living room walls. Each framed and signed, Amy had painted them. There was a play station 2 sitting next to a large tv, a number of games were shelved beside it. Grissom pulled on his latex gloves and pulled a game off of the shelf.

"Final Fantasy Seven..." he muttered, "Does your dad like to play video games?"

"Nope," Amy replied as she pasted a poem on to the poster board, "I do though. My dad says they're a waste of time but he's never played them so he shouldn't talk."

Grissom nodded and looked back at the game, there were other ones like it filed on the shelf ranging from Final Fantasy origins all the way to Final Fantasy Ten.

"You like these games?" Grissom asked sd he put the one he held back on to the shelf.

"Yup," Amy replied, "Best games ever."

-She should talk to Greg- Grissom thought -They'd have a great conversation-

After a few minutes Amy rolled up her poster and sighed, "Done."

Grissom smiled and looked around, "Don't you ever get lonely?"

"All the time," Amy said, "But my friend's come around all the time so it's not so bad." The young girl began picking up scraps of paper from the ground, "Still, I think I'd rather have my dad here, he may not be the best but he's all I've got and If he died or disappeared I don't know what I'd do."

Grissom nodded and continued to collect hair ands and fibres from the living room. After about an hour and a half the entire house had been searched for evidence, the CSI's had come up with no more than a few hair fibres and other trace evidence that didn't mean much. Brass had questioned Amy again and she answered as best she could.

"Thanks for your help," Brass said as they were leaving, "We'll be in touch. If your dad comes back tell him to call us, it's very important that we speak to him as soon as possible."

"If you need anything," Catherine said, "Don't hesitate to call. We know it can't be easy living on your own like this."

"Your not going to tell anyone?" Amy asked suddenly, "I mean anyone that might send me to a foster home, Really I don't need to. I'm fine living on my own."

"We won't tell anyone." Brass promised, "But call if you need anything or remember something that might be useful."

"Okay." Amy replied, "I will."

The CSI's said goodbye and headed back to the Tahoes.


	3. Chapter 3

"I can't believe her father would leave her alone like that!" Catherine exclaimed, "It's horrible!"

"Not kidding," Sara replied, "It's amazing she can live like that."

"Think she's hiding anything?" Brass asked as the Tahoe pulled out of the driveway and sped down the open road.

"I doubt it," Catherine said, "She doesn't seem like the kind who would lie, even to protect someone she cared for."

"Well she certainly wasn't worried or trying to protect her dad," Sara said, "Who can blame her with an asshole like that..."

"Now, now Sara," Grissom said calmly, "We don't know he's an asshole...yet."

"Oh get off it Gil," Catherine said, "If you were a father and your wife had been dead for years would you really leave your 14 year old daughter home alone for weeks at a time in Las Vegas no less?"

"No," Grissom replied.

"My point exactly," Catherine said, "Leaving a teenage girl home alone for weeks on end in Sin City isn't the best thing he could be doing for her. There are sicko's everywhere just waiting to find a girl home along like that."

"Well we promised not to say anything," Brass said, "And we wouldn't be setting a good example by betraying her trust."

"Still," Catherine said as the Tahoe pulled up into the crime labs parking lot, "It's just not right, being by herself 24/7..."

"Well, we'll keep an eye on her if that makes you feel better." Brass said.

"It will, thanks," Catherine said as she stepped form the Tahoe, "Alright, let's match some evidence."

  
  


Two hours later...

  
  


"Nothing!" Grissom threw down the folder Greg had handed him moments earlier. "Nothing matches, are you sure?"

"Positive," Greg replied, "The evidence you found at the scene holds no connection what do ever to the evidence to anything you found at Amy Walker's house."

"What about RAP sheets on Morrison or Walker?" Grissom asked Warrick who was sitting in Grissom's office, "Please tell me you found something.."

"Nothing," Warrick replied, "Neither of those guys even have a parking ticket, their both about as clean as can be."

"Mrs. Morrison?"

"Clean too," Warrick said, "Honestly there is nothing pinning her or David Walker to Morrison's murder."

"Have you checked Philip Morrison's records? Any business problems? Strange phone calls?" Grissom asked.

"Nope," Sara said as she walked into Grissom's office, "David Walker on the other hand was receiving fairly strange calls. In one day he received eleven calls which only lasted about a minute each."

"What day?" Grissom asked.

"Umm, the 26th of June." Sara replied, "I tried to track where the call had come from but it came up blank. Probably a prepaid cell phone card or something like that."

"So if we can find who called him we may have another suspect." Grissom said thoughtfully, "But who..."

"Hey Gil," Catherine said as she walked into the office, "I called the school that Amy goes to and talked to her teachers. She's one of the best students there, honest, hard working, and she's never missed a day."

"Did they know about her father?" Nick asked as he sipped a cup of coffee.

"No but they do now. They had no idea, mainly because they never had a reason to call her house."

"They plan on doing anything about it?" Nick asked.

"Well her home room teacher said she'd keep an eye on her and if things didn't look good they would call social services." Catherine replied simply, "But i think she'll be fine."

"So have we hit a dead end?" Warrick asked.

"It looks like it," Grissom said.

"No way!" Sara exclaimed, "There has to be something we've missed."

"Well where do you suggest we look?" Nick asked, "Unless we plan on getting a fine tooth comb and checking everything again we're pretty much sunk."

"Well then that's what we have to do," Grissom replied, "Get those combs out and start searching."

Everyone in the room sighed, "Where should we start?" Catherine asked.

"Let's start at the very beginning," Grissom said.

"It's a very good place to start," Nick snickered as he jabbed Warrick with his elbow.

"If you start singing like Julie Andrews I'll smack you," Sara said.

"Enough," Grissom said, "Let's get to the crime scene, We'll start at the warehouse and move out. There may have been things we missed on the first time around."

"You know in our line of work that isn't a good thing." Catherine pointed out.

"That's why I'm hoping we didn't miss anything," Grissom said, "If we did it could mean the end of the case."

But the only thing they had missed was a set of tire prints, fully intact, the CSI team went back to the labs and ran them through the computer.

"Mazda," Sara said as the results printed from the computer, "They match the partials we got from the scene the first time."

"Correction," Greg said as he peered through a microscope, "A black Mazda, probably old too."

"How'd you come up with that?" Sara asked.

"Paint chips," The lab rat replied, "By the way they look I'd guess that they came off when the car brushed up against a tree or something like that."

"Well that narrows it down the many thousands of people in the Las Vegas area." Sara muttered angrily, "Honestly."

"Wish I could be more help," Greg said, "But I'd need field work to..."

"Forget it Greg," Sara said, "You know I don't have any power over who works in the field."

"Can't help trying..." He muttered as he went back to his microscope.

Sara chuckled and walked out of the lab, Catherine quickly caught up to her, "Come on." The older CSI said, 'We're going to lunch."

"Oo where?"

"Some diner down the road." Catherine replied.


	4. Chapter 4

A Half hour later...

  
  


"Get out of my fries!" Sara smacked Brass's hand lightly.

"Sorry, I didn't get any."

"Yes you did, you ate them already!"

"Now, now children." Grissom said calmly, "Okay, lets look at what we have so far."

"We have one dead, devoted husband," Catherine said, "Let's pretend Philip Morrison is the salt shaker." She pushed the salt shaker into the center of the table.

"Then we have the distressed widow," Nick said, "Mrs. Morrison can be the pepper shaker." He placed the pepper beside the salt.

"Then we have David Walker," Sara said, "He can be the french fry which Brass is about to eat." Sara promptly snatched away her french fry.

"Hey!" the detective exclaimed.

"It's for the good of science," Sara retorted.

"Then we have Amy Walker," Warrick said, "She can be this package of sugar." He placed the sugar on the table, "So where does that leave us?"

"Well David Walker is missing," Catherine said as she looked at the table where the french fry HAD been sitting. The CSI's all turned to look at brass,

"Don't look at me," He said, raising his hands in defence, "I didn't do it!"

"Well that's okay," Grissom said, "He's missing anyways."

"So we can assume that Amy didn't do it?" Nick asked as he took a bite from his hamburger.

"We can't assume anything," Grissom replied.

"Oh come on Gris, She's fourteen, I don't think she has a criminal record." Warrick said.

Grissom raised an eyebrow, "Does she?"

"Of course not!" Catherine said, "She's not a murderer. She's a model student, she doesn't hold any grudge against the Morrison's. The only grudge she holds is against her father and who can blame her?"

"Well what about David Walker?" Sara asked, "He is missing after all. And we obviously can't find an alibi for it."

"But he's away a lot," Catherine pointed out, "Does that mean he's committed a lot of crimes?"

"He might," Sara said as she shrugged her shoulders, "Who knows?"

"Maybe he's a hit man." Nick suggested, "Maybe he's going away on 'business trips'" He made quote signs in the air.

"Or maybe," Grissom said, "We're all thinking inside the box. David Walker could just be a very busy man that goes away on business trips all the time. The killer might not have anything to do with the Walker family."

"Well then we've hit a dead end," Brass said, "All you've got it a black Mazda and there are hundreds of those in Vegas."

Grissom sighed and rubbed his weary eyes, "This case is starting to get on my nerves," He muttered.

"Your not the only one," Catherine replied, "And we've only been on it what? Three days?"

"Yup," Sara said as she munched her salad, "So what do we do now?"

"Well," brass said before a cell phone started ringing.

"Mine," Catherine said as she picked up her phone, "Hello? Oh Hey!" She pointed to the sugar pack on the table, "What? Okay, don't worry, we'll be over right away." Catherine hung up the phone and quickly picked up her purse.

"We should pay and get out of here," She said.

"Why?" Nick asked.

"That was Amy," Catherine replied, "She just got home from school to find her house had been torn apart and a weird note laying on the ground."

"Did she call the cops?" Sara asked.

Catherine shook her head, 'She said she felt better calling us, that way she wouldn't have to explain why her dad wasn't there all over again."

"Let's go then," Grissom said, "This sounds serious."

Catherine nodded, "She sounded pretty scared."


	5. Chapter 5

When they arrived at the Walker house the CSI's found Amy sitting on the porch step. She was pale as a ghost and clutched a plain piece of paper in her hand. The CSI's quickly walked over to her.

"Hey, you alright?" Nick asked as he sat down beside her.

Amy looked up and smiled weakly, "Yeah, I'm fine, just a bit shaken up, that's all."

"Is that the note?" Grissom asked.

"Yup," Amy replied, 'Help yourself." She handed Grissom the letter, he read over it carefully.

  
  


Careful (It said) Your trading on thin ice. We want it back. If you don't give it to us we'll be forced to hurt you. You'll be next Amy, after your Father dies we'll come after you.

  
  


Grissom shuddered and placed the note into a brown envelope. "Any idea who would send this to you?"

"None," Amy replied as she shook her head.

Catherine opened the door to the house and gaped, the living room was torn apart, the pictures that had been hanging on the walls were all smashed. Things that had once had a place in the house were thrown everywhere.

"Any idea who could have wanted to hurt you or your dad?" Brass asked quietly, but Amy just shook her head again.

"I have no idea, my dad doesn't have any enemies as far as I know."

"Okay," Grissom said quietly, "Listen, go pack a bag for the night, you can stay at the crime labs. I don't want you here incase whoever did this comes back."

"Okay," Amy said as she stood up and brushed the dirt off of her flared jeans.

"I'll come with you," Sara said as Grissom gave her a look that said 'Don't leave the kid alone'

"I'll come too," Nick said.

  
  


Amy shoved a pair of flared jeans and a t-shirt into her backpack. Sara and Nick looked around the medium sized bedroom, Wall hangings from different video games (All Final Fantasy's Nick noted) hung on the white washed walls. A red oak student desk was covered in papers and text books. The bunk bed looked fairly worn and was covered in blue sheets. The one thing that stood out the most was a small wooden case hanging off of a peg in the wall. A Japanese doll in red and gold kimono stood in the case, her face looked old as though it had lost it's shine years ago.

"Where did you get this doll?" Nick asked as he looked at it.

"Oh, my mom gave it to me before she died," Amy replied quietly, "It's one of the only things I have of hers."

"It must be hard without her," Sara said quietly.

"It is a little," Amy admitted, "But you get use to these kinds of things eventually. I really don't remember much about her." The young girl shoved a discman in to her backpack and swung the bag over her shoulder.

"Alright, I'm ready to go."

"Great!" Sara said, "You get to see where we work."

"You can meet Greg, our lab rat." Nick said, "I can tell by looking at your room that you'll be good friends."

"Really?" Amy asked as she raised an eyebrow, "What makes you say that?"

"Oh it's just a hunch," Nick replied as he looked at another poster.


	6. Chapter 6

Amy sat in the interrogation room of the Crime Labs, Brass sat across from her, he always hated interrogating kids, the cooperated so well.

"When was the last time you saw your dad?" He asked.

"Probably about a week and a half ago," she replied.

"Did he say where he was going?" Brass asked.

"He said it was a business trip," Amy answered, "But I doubt it, he never tells me where he's going so i doubt he was telling the truth this time."

"So this isn't the first time he's gone away like this?"

"Good lord no," Amy replied, " He's been doing this since I was nine."

"And you've never told anyone about it before?" Brass asked sternly.

Amy sighed, "You've got to see it from my point of view, I grew up with him not there. It was normal to me that he was always gone and i was by myself. I considered it unnatural if he was ever home for long periods of time."

"And how long did he usually go away for?"

"Hm, most he was ever gone was two months, least he's been gone is three weeks."

Brass sighed and tried not to make any rude comment about David Walker's parenting skills, "The last time you saw your dad, did he say when you might see him again?"

"He said he would try to be at the Henderson Civic Center in two weeks." Amy said, 'There's a performance there that I'm singing at . He promised he would come but..."

"But?" Brass asked.

"Well I have my doubts, my dad is full of empty promises, so I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't show up."

"Did Mr and Mrs Morrison look like a happy couple to you?" Brass quickly changed the subject, he didn't want to press the issue of Amy's father to much.

"Oh yes," Amy said, "They were very happy together. Kind of like the perfect couple, the understood each other real well."

"Did they ever fight?" Brass asked.

"Not that I ever saw," Amy replied, "I was over at their house a lot. Whenever my dad went away Mrs. Morrison would let me stay at their place but I never saw them fight, like I said, they looked really happy together."

"Can you think of any reason someone might be unhappy with either Mr. Morrison or your dad?" 

Amy looked thoughtful for a moment, considering the question, "No reason that I can think of, I think their business did really well... no real complaints."

Brass smiled and nodded, 'Thanks for your help Amy, That's all for now."

  
  


"You'll find them won't you?" Amy asked as the CSI's led her down the hall to a room where she could stay for the night, "You'll find the people that did this right?"

"Don't worry kiddo," Warrick said, "We'll catch them."

"Yeah!" Sara agreed, "You don't have anything to worry about while we're on the case!"

"You make us sound like super hero's," Nick muttered.

"My alternate personality is Forensic Woman," Catherine said, "print, print and away!"

Everyone in the group laughed as they came to the end of the hall.

"You can stay here for the night," Grissom said as he opened the door, there was a coffee table, a desk and a couch made up with blankets to resemble a bed.

"Thanks," Amy said.

"Brass will probably have more questions for you tomorrow, he'll take you home around dinner time."

"Okay," Amy as cheerfully as she could under the circumstances, "Thanks for helping"

"Hey no problem," Warrick said, "Helping you is our job.


	7. Chapter 7

Two days later..

  
  


Brass has taken Amy home the night before with strict instructions to call if anything happened. Back at the crime labs the CSI's were busy going over the evidence again but it did little good, they couldn't find anything new.

"Hey Gil," Catherine said as she walked in to the break room, "I tried calling Amy's house but there was no answer."

"Well maybe she's at a friends house," Grissom suggested.

"Except I tried to call her earlier this afternoon," Sara said, "I didn't get an answer either."

"She didn't pick up this morning," Nick said as he took a sip of his coffee and made a cringe face.

"I tried her school," Warrick said as he came in behind Catherine, "She wasn't at school today."

Grissom frowned, 'I'd ask why you were all checking on her but I know why. Someone go get Brass, tell him we're heading over to her house asap."

  
  


Five minutes later the Crime Lab Tahoe's pulled up in the Walker home driveway. The CSI's practically jumped out of the Tahoe's, not waiting for the car to stop. They walked up to the front door, it was open. The graveyard shift slowly entered the house, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, all the glass had been cleaned up from when it was first entered. Everything seemed back in place except..... Where was Amy? The small team slowly made their way around the house, looking for traces of the girl. She was gone.

"The same people," Catherine said, "It must be."

"The same people that killed Morrison or the same people that torn up her house?" Warrick asked as he carefully stepped over a broken glass.

"Both," Grissom said, "I think we're dealing with the same person or persons unknown."

"What makes you say that?" Nick asked.

"Call it a hunch," Grissom replied.

"I though you didn't go on hunches."

"I don't but it's always good to try new things." Grissom said, "Alright let's process this place."

"She's not upstairs," Sara said as she walked down the spiral case, "Everything is intact so she was probably downstairs when the house was entered."

"Looks like they came through the patio door," Warrick said, "Glass is smashed."

"Check for prints," Grissom said, "Maybe our killer got sloppy."

"I'll go call in her disappearance," Brass said, "This doesn't look good, not good at all."

"That would be an understatement, Brass." Nick said, "This is more horrible than 'not good'."

"Whatever floats your boat, man." Brass said, "It all means the same."

"I've got some cloth fibres," Catherine said as Brass left the house, "Look black, almost metallic, they might be from a pair of gloves."

"I've got some on the glass," Warrick said, "Here Cath," he handed her the fibres he picked up with the tweezers.

"Well it's hard to say but it looks like a visual match," Catherine said, "Greg will be able to tell us when we get back to the lab."

"God I hope she's alright," Sara whispered as she snapped off a photo of the smashed patio door.

"I hope your right," Grissom agreed.


	8. Chapter 8

Three days later

  
  


It was just past midnight, Brass just phoned in the information everyone had feared, they had found her. Alive? No one knew yet. The Tahoe raced down the open highway and turned left on to an old service road, inside no one said a word. The entire team felt the grim pressure of what they would find when they got there.

  
  


Catherine spoke first, "Do you think she'll be alive?" the question everyone in the car dreaded. Grissom could only shake his head, "I couldn't tell you, she's a strong kid but..."

"Living practically on her own since she was nine," Nick muttered, "Yeah I'd call that strong."

"But if she is alive," Warrick said, "What would happen to her then?"

"Foster home probably," Sara said, "There's no way any judge would let her stay with her dad even if he is alive, not with a killer after her."

The Tahoe pulled into a dusty parking lot, police cars were already there but there was no sign of an ambulance. It was another warehouse, almost identical to the one Philip Morrison had been found in.

"Warehouses have become popular these days." Warrick muttered. Brass approached the CSI's as they stepped out of the Tahoe and walked under the yellow tape.

"What's it like in there?" Grissom asked.

"We're not sure yet," Brass said, "The door was locked, they're opening it now. Some kids were out dirt biking when they heard screaming, they called the police and I called you guys." There was a loud crack, the wooden doors of the warehouse broke, the police officer who opened it grinned and put his crowbar away. He was about to enter when Grissom walked forward.

"We'll go first," he said sternly, "We need the evidence." The police officer gave a shrug and stepped away from the door. The CSI's picked up their silver evidence kits and carefully opened stepped past the remains of the warehouse doors. They carefully shined their flashlights into the dark one room building. Grissom cringed, a body lay on the far left side of the room, blood pooled around it. He only needed one guess to know who the man was. Then he had to suppress a cry of anger, all the CSI's saw it, they shined their flashlights to the back wall. Amy lay there, her hands were tied together, long cuts ran along her arms and legs.

Grissom felt the urge to run forward and help the young girl, Catherine must have been thinking the same thing, she put her hand on Grissom's shoulder and said quietly, "The evidence." He nodded rather grimly and began looking around while Warrick and Sara went to the girl. 

Warrick and Sara knelt down beside Amy, the young girl managed to sit up with Warrick's help, "My dad," She said quietly, "They killed him... he's..." Amy broke down and began to cry quietly.

"It's alright," Sara said quietly as she patted the young girl's arm awkwardly, "It'll be alright."

"They killed him." She sobbed, "Right in front of me..."

"It's okay," Warrick said quietly, "Sara help me get her up." Sara nodded and gently lifted Amy to her feet with Warrick supporting her on the other side. Amy struggled to walk but she fell to the ground in faint with the first step.

"Is she alright?" Nick asked.

"Looks like they beat her up pretty bad," Warrick said, He gently picked the young girl in his arms, "God she barely weighs anything,"

"Take her out to the Tahoe," Grissom ordered sternly, "The ambulances should be here soon." Warrick nodded, he and Sara walked out of the warehouse tot he Tahoe where the carefully lay her on the back seat.

Brass walked up to them and looked past Warrick to the young girl, "Is she going to be alright?"

"I hope so," Sara said, "Looks like she's been beaten pretty bad though.." 

"Anyone else in there?" Brass asked.

"One other guy," Warrick replied quietly.

"Not her dad?"

"It looks like it," Sara said quietly.

"Damn..." Brass muttered as an ambulance arrived in the parking lot. Two paramedics hopped out of the front and quickly walked over to the Tahoe where Warrick, Sara and Brass stood.

"How many others are there?" The first paramedic asked.

"One other dead inside." Brass said, "This girl's been beaten up pretty bad." The paramedic nodded sadly and bent over to look at Amy, he carefully checked her pulse and looked at her many knife cuts.

Finally he looked up, "She should be alright but she needs to go to the hospital to get a thorough check up."

"Does she have to go right away?" Brass asked, "It's important that we find out what happened while she still remembers..."

"She can wait," The paramedic said, "She's not in any danger, just tell me when and we'll take her."

"How is she?" Grissom, Catherine and Nick walked up behind the others and looked into the Tahoe.

"She'll live," The paramedic said, "But she should go to the hospital anyways."

"I say we wait until we learn what happened," Brass said, "You're the one that always says a victim's best memory is within 24 hours of the incident."

Grissom nodded, "We'll wait."

Catherine sighed sadly, "You know it's a sick world we live in when someone has to resort to violence on a child to get what they want."

"Who would do something like this?" Sara asked, "It doesn't make any sense."

"Poor kid," Warrick said, "Man she's gonna be disappointed..."

"About what?" Brass asked.

"She was supposed to sing at that concert in a couple of weeks," Warrick replied, "She won't be able to, not at this rate."

Suddenly there was a groan from the Tahoe seat and Amy sat up, "Well I'll be damned if this is going to stop me." The young girls face had no emotion to it, she had seen things... heard things... There was no emotion.


	9. Chapter 9

Brass walked up to the Tahoe and stood by the open door, "You up to telling us what happened?"

"Brass, don't you think we should wait... she's been through a lot..." Nick said quietly, but Amy shook her head.

"If I don't say it now then I may forget things."

  
  


xXx

  
  


"You sure you'll be alright?" Brass asked as he pulled up at Amy's house.

She nodded, "I've lived practically on my own since I was nine, I'll be fine." Brass sighed at the young teen's bravery.

"Alright but call if anything happens." 

Amy smiled and assured Brass she would, she thanked him for the ride home and unlocked the door to her house. The solitude was nice, she was a quiet person so living practically on her own was fine, it didn't bother her at all. After feeding her two cats Amy sat down in the living room and put on a DVD.

After about a half hour into 'Shrek' a loud crash came from the kitchen, the cats always fought so she really didn't think anything of it but when a loud hissing came from the kitchen Amy went to investigate. A Man dressed in all black was searching the kitchen, he looked up and saw Amy and they both froze. Before Amy had a chance to react someone came up behind her, grabbed her around the stomach and held a knife to her neck.

"Where is it?" The first man asked, "Where are you hiding it?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Amy snapped.

The first man made one quick step forward and back handed the young girl across her face. If the second man hadn't been holding her she would have been flung across the room from the force of the blow. Suddenly the second man brought a heavy object down on the back of Amy's hand and she blacked out.

Amy woke to find herself tied together by rope and lying in the middle of the ware house, three men stood around her. Everything was completely quiet, no one said a word until one man moved to the side and Amy could see her father. 

"You basterds!" David Walker spat, 'Leave her alone!" The kidnappers just laughed.

One man motioned to another and he brought out a gun.

"So which one of you will go first? The father or the daughter?"

"Where are you hiding it Walker?" The first man with the gun asked Amy's Father, he didn't say anything.

The first man grinned evilly, "You've got a pretty daughter, Walker. Shame if anything bad happened to her."

"Leave her out of this!" David Walker yelled, "She doesn't know anything."

"I find that hard to believe," The first man said, "How bout it kid, Do you knew where it is?"

"Leave me alone," Amy snapped. The first man sighed and faced David Walker.

"I gave you a chance, it's too late now." The man turned to look at Amy and pointed the gun directly at her, just as he was about to fire he turned and pointed the gun at Amy's father and fired off a single shot. Amy screamed her defiance but it didn't matter. The third man hit Amy across the back of her head and she blacked out.

The first man spoke, "We'll finish her off later, have a scout watch this place to make sure no one finds her. Let's go search the house again."

  
  


xXx

"I'm not sure how long I was there, long enough I suppose. Then another man came, he shook me awake and said that I had to be prepared because tonight was going to be my last night. Then he put a gag on me and left." Amy was crying now, "I was so afraid, the image of my dad getting shot just played over again and again in my head. I just kind of blacked out, I woke up and I could hear kids dirt biking, the gag was partly off and I just started screaming. I guess somehow they heard and called the police."

"You've been very brave," Catherine said quietly as she hugged Amy around the shoulders, trying not to hurt her anymore.

"Ain't it the truth," Warrick said, "Don't worry, we'll find whoever did this too you and your family."

"What's going to happen to me?" Amy asked, "I don't have any family left apart from my god parents, but I've never met them..."

Grissom exchanged a wary glance with Catherine, "Never met them?" He asked.

Amy shook her head, "My dad says," She exhaled deeply, "My dad said it was because they were always busy and moved around a lot."

Nick was catching on to what the other CSI's were thinking, "What are your god parent's names?"

Amy shrugged, slightly embarrassed, "I don't know, my dad probably has their number at his office."

"I hate to break up the party Amy," Brass said, "But you need to get to the hospital to get checked out. Want someone to go with you?"

"Yes." Amy replied quickly.

"I'll go," Catherine volunteered, "I've already collected blood splatter evidence and such, besides, mother's touch."

Amy smiled and walked unsteadily towards the with Catherine. Sara, Grissom, Warrick and Nick watched it pull and drive off into the night. Nick and Sara went back to the warehouse but Grissom just kept watching where the ambulance had disappeared.

"Something wrong Gris?" Warrick asked.

"Something's always wrong but now...now it's just worse." he muttered, "Sara is right, this is sickening. Kidnapping, murder, assault and god knows what else. When was the last time we had a case like this?"

Warrick shrugged, "It's been a while, All I can say is when we catch these guys someone had better hold me back because their's going to be some serious but kicking..."

"If Sara doesn't get to them first." Grissom said smiling.

Warrick laughed, "Yeah those females can sure pack a punch."

"It's sad isn't it, when people resort to children as ways of expressing their anger." Grissom said to Warrick.

"Definitely; I still want to know why he left Amy alone for so long, he must have known that people were after him, why wouldn't he warn his daughter?"

Sara joined the conversation as she walked forward to Grissom and Warrick, "Because he knew it wouldn't help."

"Huh?"

"Alright, who runs Las Vegas?"

"The Mayor?" Warrick asked, Sara shook her head.

"Past him., Higher up. The dark underground rulings of Las Vegas."

"The mob," Grissom said.


	10. Chapter 10

~Hey peeps! Im back *Huzzah* Sorry, I originally wrote PB on my old type writer, then I lost the entire story, so Im putting everything down from memory. It should work out fine though.

  
  


Back at the hospital, a doctor checked Amy's pulse and cleaned her wounds. The young girl winced as the peroxide cleaned away the open wounds.

"You should be fine Amy," The doctor said slowly, "But you need some rest, And..." He raised an eyebrow as he looked at Catherine, "I wouldn't recommend going home, not after what Ms. Willows has told me."

Amy nodded, "Fine with me..." Was the quiet reply. Catherine said nothing as she helped the young girl off the hospital table, Amy managed a weak "thanks" before jamming her feet in her ratty sneakers.

"You can stay at the Crime lab tonight," Catherine said as they walked out into the cool Las Vegas night, "Then in the morning we'll decide what will happen to you. Hopefully we'll be able to contact your god parents..." Catherine started up the Tahoe and pulled on to the highway, "You can stay with them."

"Great." Amy replied bitterly. 

Catherine looked at her quizzically, "Do I sense Sarcasm?"

"Yes."

"And why's that?"

"You try being forced to go live with people that never bothered to make themselves known in your life and enjoy it. Im not looking forward to it." Amy said quietly, "I mean, my dad is dead... my mom is dead, and now Im going to go live with complete strangers!"

Catherine nodded in sympathy, "Well, we'll see what happens alright? Maybe you can continue to live in your house..."

Amy sighed in relief, "That would be great."

Catherine smiled, "I thought you would like that."

  
  


Back at the CSI break room everyone, save Catherine, sat around a rectangle table looking over evidence.

"So, let me get this straight..." Nick said slowly, "We have two god parents who have never met their god daughter?"

"Correction, Steve and Mary Anderson who have never met their god daughter." Sara said, "I ran a background check on Amy and found their names, They don't live too far from the Walker residence"

"Well," Grissom said slowly, "We just have something. Warrick, you and Nick head to the Anderson Residence and talk to Henry and Mary, tell them that now they have custody of Amy and see if they knew anything about David or Phillip's jobs or social lives."

Warrick and Nick nodded and left the break room quietly, talking about Amy and her god parents.

"I don't get it," Nick said as they stepped in to the Tahoe, "What kind of people would never meet their god daughter?"

Warrick shrugged as he drove down the highway, "I'm not sure, If you ask me I think it's a bit fishy."

"Yeah but you know what Grissom says, Don't ever go on hunches. Until we get more proof... hold on, this is it."

Brass waited for the CSI's as they pulled into the driveway of a three story brick house planted among a quiet neighbourhood.

"Hey, bout time you guys showed up." He said, "So this is where the ungrateful god parents live huh?"

"Now, now Brass." Warrick said as he grinned, "Don't bite their heads off just yet."

Brass shrugged, "I can't help it, people like this just... bug me."

"Yeah, we know." Nick said as they walked up to the front door and rang the door bell. After a few seconds the door opened to reveal a woman in hear early 30's with chocolate brown hair and green eyes.

"Yes, Can I help you?"

"Mary Anderson?" Brass asked.

"Yes."

He flashed his badge, Detective Brass, LVPD, these nice men are Brown and Stokes, they're with the crime lab."

"Crime lab? Oh my god.. What's happened?"

"May we come in ma'am?"

"Yes, yes of course." Mary Anderson led the CSI's and Brass down a hallway to a living room and offered them drinks, they politely declined as they sat down on sand coloured couches.

"Ma'am..." Warrick began, "Do you know David Walker and his daughter Amy?"

"Yes... I'm Amy's god mother, my husband is her god father."

"I'm sorry..." Nick said, "But David Walker has been murdered, his daughter Amy has been assaulted and is now in your legal custody."

Mary Anderson shook head, "I can't believe it..."

"When was the last time you saw Amy?" Brass asked.

Mary Anderson went bright red, "Well, not since she was a baby..."

"Why?"

"Well, it's a bit embarrassing but my husband and David Walker had a falling out and my husband refused to let me see her."

"You have rights ma'am." Brass reminded her, "You're allowed to see her when you want."

"Oh I know." Mary replied, "But My husband has this way of doing things, everyone has a place in life and It wasn't my place to go over what he said."

"Where's your husband now?" Nick asked quietly.

"At work, he should be home in a few hours."

"When would be a good time to bring Amy over?" Brass asked.

"Well," Mary said thoughtfully, "I should probably tell my husband first, say...Some time tomorrow? Five thirty-ish?"

"Alright," Brass replied, "We'll be in touch."


	11. Chapter 11

The Next afternoon...

  
  


Two CSI Tahoe's pulled into the Walker residence driveway, the CSI's slowly filed out and looked around. There was an odd peace surrounding the house, one that created a sort of calm... None of the scientists said anything as they walked to the front door and rang the doorbell. There were several seconds of silence before the door opened to reveal a glum faced young girl.

"Hey," She said quietly, "Come in." She let the CSI's in and sighed, "I'm just.. Packing a few things until I can get the rest of this junk into storage."

"Need a hand?" Sara asked quietly.

Amy nodded and smiled gratefully, lighting up her face slightly, "Sure, all help is welcome." Sara followed Amy up the stairs and disappeared into a room. 

Grissom sighed and looked around, "Alright, lets make one last check for evidence, anything that looks out of place, take a picture of it and bag it. I don't want to have any most kidnapping incidents."

Just over an hour later, Amy and Sara appeared in the front foyer, Several bags in hand, Amy looked quite upset.

"Alright, let's get out of here." She muttered angrily.

Brass grinned sadly, "Aw don't be like that... It's gonna get better..."

"Both my parents are dead and im going to live with complete strangers... Yep, I an see the silver lining now."

Brass rolled his eyes at the sarcasm, "Alright, let's go."

It was only a short drive to the Anderson residence, Sara and Amy filed from one Tahoe and knocked on the front door. Mary Anderson answered it and exchanged a few words with Sara and Amy before showing them inside. Sara flashed Grissom a quick "thumbs up" and entered the house. 

The CSI supervisor sighed sadly and turned on the cd player to Vivaldi's Four Season's, he had a very bad feeling about all of this... a very bad feeling indeed.

In the Anderson house, Sara and Amy walked up stairs to a large room plainly decorated with a large oak bed and white washed walls. Amy fumed angrily and fell down on to the bed.

"I'll have you know that this is not going over well with me." She declared simply, "And I'm only staying here to stay out of everyones hair."

Sara grinned slightly and sat down beside the young girl, "Don't worry, as soon as we can finish this case, we'll find a way to get you out of here." She thought for a moment and pulled a sheet of paper out of her pocket, "Here, Grissom gave me strict instructions, If ANYTHING strange happens you have to call him. Everyone's number is on this paper, if you ever get scared or hear something or..."

Amy grinned, "Thanks Sara, But I'll be okay, I'll just douse myself in a good pool of teenage angst and sleep it off"

Sara grinned, "We'll call you every day, just to check up on you."

Amy grinned sadly, "Thanks, but I'll be fine."

"See ya later Amy,"

"Bye."

As Sara exited the Anderson house she caught Grissom's glance, with a mournful shrug she walked over and stepped into the Tahoe.

"She's not fine is she?" Gil asked.

"Nope." Sara replied.

  
  


Two days later, in the late morning, the evidence was becoming stale, the CSI's had no new leads when Grissom's cell phone rang.

"Grissom." 

"It's Brass, we have a 420, Another body. Another warehouse. Just north of the Strip..."

He gave the directions.

"We'll be there in fifteen." Grissom clicked off and looked at the CSI's who sat around the break room table, "Another body, looks like the same mark as the Morrison/Walker case."

"Great," Warrick muttered, "Just great."

"Warehouse?" Nick asked.

"Of course." Grissom replied, "Let's go."

With Warrick driving it took less than ten minutes to arrive at the scene. It was like a memory, a warehouse in the middle of Vegas, the perfect crime scene with no evidence. Brass finished talking with an officer and walked over to the CSI's.

"William Anderson, 38, haven't run a RAP on him yet. Looks like he was killed by the same guy."

Catherine sighed, "Our killer just isn't giving us a break..."

"Wait... Anderson?" Sara asked, "As in related to Mary and Steve Anderson? The legal guardians of Amy..."

Brass shrugged, "Like I said, I haven't got a chance to run him yet. Figured I'd let you CSI's handle it. He won't get anymore dead."

Grissom rolled his eyes slightly, "Alright, Sara, You go back to the lab and run a back ground check on William Anderson. If he's in anyone related to Steve and Mary then we need to let them know. They could be potential targets."

Sara nodded, "I'm on it."

"The rest of you, start processing this place, Take it slow and go over everything. I don't want to miss a single thread or hair fibre. This killer has been on the loose long enough."

Warrick, Nick and Catherine nodded and slowly entered the warehouse, Brass stayed behind. "What's up with you Gil? You're becoming... emotional... involved... you know that getting involved with the victims isn't good for you."

"Involved?" Grissom raised and eyebrow.

"Yeah," Brass said, "Not use to them being alive are you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Amy Walker." Brass replied simply, "You're doing everything in your power to help her and then some."

"What's wrong with wanting to help a victim?" Grissom asked as he pursed his lips.

"Nothing." Brass replied, "But When it begins to effect your work, well then there is a problem."

"It's not effecting my work, Jim."

"Are you sure."

"Yes."

"Good, didn't want to get Mobley to shift this case to Ecklie, he'd probably screw it up within five minutes of getting it."

"My thoughts exactly."

Several minutes later Grissom's cell phone rang once more, "Grissom."

"Gil, It's Sara. You wouldn't believe what I'm holding in my hands as we speak."

"Information on William Anderson?"

"Not only his personal info but a RAP sheet on him. Get this, fourteen years ago he robbed a major bank, got away with almost 2.3 mil worth of small jewels stuff..." Grissom opened his mouth to reply but Sara kept going, "They gave him 15 years with chance of parol after 10."

"And did they every recover the jewels?"

"Nope," Sara replied, But like we thought, Steve and William are brothers, Only thing is that Steve is a model citizen, not even a parking ticket., A few months after the court case against his brother he married Mary and they've been living in Vegas since."

"When was William Released from prison?"

"Two weeks ago."

"Sara, you're an angel. Get the Tahoe and Meet me at the Anderson house. Do not do anything until Brass and I get there."

"Sure thing Gris."

Grissom hung up and looked over, "Brass, come on, we might have something."


	12. Chapter 12

"Steve Anderson?" 

A man in his late thirties opened the door to his house to find Brass, Grissom and Sara standing in front of him, stern looks on their faces.

"Uh..Yes... Can I help you?"

"Jim Brass, LVPD, This is Gil Grissom and Sara Sidle, Las Vegas Criminalists. May we come in?"

"Uh, sure." Steve Anderson had black hair and dark eyes to match, he wore a navy suit and a light blue collared shirt. He quickly led the CSI's into the living room and motioned for them to sit down.

"Uh, could you make it quick, I need to get to work..." Steve Anderson said hastily, "My wife told me that you came by the other day to talk about Amy... what happened to her is horrible..."

"Sir, I'm afraid we have some bad news for you." Brass said quietly, "Your brother was found murdered earlier today, under the exact same circumstances of Philip Morrison, David Walker and Amy Walker." 

"What?" Steve Anderson said quietly as he fell down onto a couch, "I...I don't believe it..."

Sara sighed, she always hated this part of the job, "Sir, your brother was recently released from prison on parol... do you have any idea who would have wanted to kill him?"

Steve Anderson smiled weakly, "After the job he pulled..." He chuckled quietly, "Anyone could have wanted to kill him."

Grissom thought for a moment, "You wife told us that you had a falling out with David Walker and that's why neither of you went to visit Amy.. What happened?"

Steve Anderson shrugged, "In all honesty, I can't remember, it was such a long time ago... probably something really stupid that we never agreed on."

Grissom gave Brass a brief nod, the detective stood up, "Alright, we'll be in touch." As the small group got up and left the living room Steve Anderson spoke.

"Mr Grissom, I hope you find who did this soon..."

Grissom turned around and faced the man, "I will, and I assure you that whoever did it will pay dearly."

  
  


Several hours later, Back at the Crime lab Grissom and Catherine stood on the left side of William Anderson's body which was layed out on a cold slab of metal while Doc Robbins finished his examination. After several moments the doctor looked up.

"Died the same way as your other victims, one gun shot to the right temple, I'd say this was a .38 caliber." He rolled down the white sheet to reveal William Anderson's chest and stomach, "Whoever did this to him had no mercy. Three broken ribs, his right lung was partly crushed, see these bruises? I'm guessing it was some kind of blunt object, maybe a pipe that repeatedly hit him on that area of his chest."

"No chance that some of those bruises were from being in prison?" Catherine asked as she looked over the dead man's body.

Al Robbins shrugged, "It's possible, but most of these are fairly fresh, I'd say only a day or two old."

"He was released from prison two weeks ago..." Catherine said quietly.

"There's another thing, see the ligature marks around his wrists?" He pointed to bright red marks circling William Anderson's wrists, "I found a few fibres in them, ent them to trace, looked like some kind of rope to me."

"So he was tied up, probably for a few days." Grissom said thoughtfully, "Alright Doc, thanks so much."

"Anything I can do to help Gil, just do everyone here at the crime lab a favour and find whoever did this." 

Grissom and Catherine left the morgue, after shedding their pale blue surgical robes they began walking down the hallway, "So... back to the evidence?" Catherine asked.

Grissom nodded, "The break room, bring everything we have. Hunt down the others."

Fifteen minutes later the night shift CSI's sat int eh break room, evidence strewn out before them and small boxes of take out Chinese food being passed around.

"You guys are going to love me." Sara said as she sat down beside Warrick, a folder in hand, "I mean... really love me."

"I already do." Greg said.

Sara rolled her eyes and ignored the comment, "I brought out Amy Walker's family history, guess who was going to be her god father before Steve and Mary Anderson."

"William Anderson?" Warrick guessed.

"Yep," Sara said cheerfully, "But our friend Will was sent to prison, so it changed..."

"To Steve and Mary Anderson." Catherine finished, "But then what happened between David Walker and Steve Anderson to make them so bitter towards each other?"

"Nick's going over the Anderson case file from 14 years ago." Sara said, "But it's going to be hard to get anything, it's an old case."

"Well all we can do is wait," Grissom said, "Listen, all of you go home and get some rest, come back tomorrow evening and we'll try again. We've all been working on this case long enough."

It would be a lie if I said that none of the CSI's were grateful for the opportunity to rest, yet at the same time they didn't want to leave. They had a duty to find out what had happened and to find out who was ordering all these hits to be done. Each CSI felt a twinge of fear come into their hearts and minds as they left the Crime Lab and drove back to their homes, each had a different way of dealing with it.

When Catherine finally got home Lindsey was already asleep in bed, she carefully crept into her daughters room and knelt down beside her bed. It was hard to not cry when she knew that another young girl without a mother or father was out there just across town. Catherine sniffed and brushed away a small tear before kissing her daughter on the forehead and leaving the room.


	13. Chapter 13

The Next morning.

"You thought Sara was good!"

"Excuse me?" Grissom raised an eyebrow at Nicks comment as the young CSI raced down the crime lab hallway to the supervisor.

Nick rolled his eyes, "Not like that. Listen, I went back to the old Anderson case, you will never believe what I found."

"Get everyone in my office, five minutes. Brass as well, tell me then."

Nick nodded and continued down the hallway in search of the others. A feeling crept into Grissom's stomach, one he hadn't felt in quite a while... fear.

Five minutes later the CSI's from the night shift and Brass were squished into Grissom's office, waiting for the news Nick had gotten.

"Well?" Grissom asked impatiently, "What did you find Nick?"

The young man grinned, "It's great.. Well actually it isn't but that's not the point. I went back to the old Anderson case and looked at it carefully. You wouldn't believe who was also charged along with William Anderson."

"Uh, David Walker?" Sara ventured a guess.

"Nope." 

"Steve Anderson." Grissom said quietly.

"And the jewels were never found." Catherine replied, "So...why were the charges dropped against Steve Anderson?"

"William Anderson claimed that he did the job on his own, plus there was never enough evidence against him." Nick explained, "So here's what I'm thinking; William Anderson was the original god father of Amy, he pulls the job and get's sent to prison so the brother, Steve Anderson, becomes god father."

"That still doesn't explain why Philip Morrison and David Walker were killed and Amy was nearly killed." Warrick said, "So what if-." His thought was cut short when Catherine's cellphone rang. 

She pulled it out of her pocket, "Willows... Oh hello Ms. Devlone..."

"Amy's teacher..." Warrick muttered quietly.

"Yes..." Catherine continued to talk, "I see... Alright we'll look into it." Catherine hung up and looked at her fellow CSI's, "Amy hasn't been at school for the past three days. They've tried calling the Anderson house but haven't gotten an answer."

"Oh shit..." Sara muttered.

Grissom stood up from his desk, "Alright, get your evidence kits, we're going to the Anderson house now! Brass, can you get a warrant?"

"Already on it." He said as he picked up his own phone.

"Alright, let's go." Grissom said, "I have a feeling we don't have much time."

  
  


Minutes later the CSI's drove into the Anderson driveway, Brass was right behind them in a squad car with the warrant in hand. They walked quickly up to the front door and rang the door bell. There was no reply for several seconds. Grissom pulled on his latex gloves and carefully tried to door handle, it was open. Grissom carefully pushed the door open and stepped inside the house.

"You're all armed?" Brass asked. The CSI's only nodded. "Alright, just checking."

"Amy's room is upstairs." Sara said quickly, "You guys coming?"

The followed Sara up the stairs and to the left until they came to the end of the hallway and the large room. From making one quick look around, nothing seemed out of place. There was no broken glass on the floor and no blood splatter to be seen. Grissom shivered, the room had a cold feel to it.

"Alright, Sara, Warrick, spray this place with Luminol, get me if anything shows up." The supervisor ordered, "Cath, you and Nick take the lower floor. I'll tart upstairs with the other rooms."

The CSI's nodded and went off into the depths of the large house to begin the long task of searching for trace amounts of evidence. Time passed by slowly and neither Catherine and Nick nor Grissom had found anything. It had been a half hour when Sara came looking for Grissom.

"You might want to see this." She said slowly.

"What is it?"

"Just, come on. The Luminol will disappear after thirty seconds." 

Grissom shrugged and followed Sara down the hall to Amy's room. The moment he stepped inside he felt like throwing up. The entire room glowed bright blue, traces of blood splatter covered the wall and ceilings. Warrick was already busy taking photographs, all Grissom could do was stare. Suddenly he heard Catherine and Nick gasp behind him.

"Please..." Nick said slowly, "Tell me that isn't all her blood."

"Take.. Take some samples." Grissom said as the glow began to disappear, "We may have just found where Philip Morrison was killed."

Sara leaned down next to a bed side table which a hook hanging out of it and picked out something with tweezers. "Fibres, like the ones found in William Anderson's wounds."

"Hey Nick, Spray some more Luminol. I still have pictures to take." Warrick said as the camera flashed. 

"Just radioed in the possible 427-whoa" He stopped talking as he entered the room, "Please tell me that isn't all hers..."

"We're not sure yet." Grissom said, "One thing we are sure of is that she's gone and probably in the hands of our killer."


	14. Chapter 14

They had been checking the Anderson house for evidence for over three hours when Brass got a call for a 407Z... an attempted robbery, at a near by drug store. He would only be a few minutes, half an hour at the most, and so he drove down the road and into the approaching darkness. 

Grissom jumped slightly as his cell phone rang. He looked around before picking it up.

"Grissom."

"..."

"Hello?"

"Take the road south towards Henderson civic Centre, keep going for one mile until you reach a warehouse."

"Who is this?" Grissom demanded.

"You can't go. Send Sidle, Willows and Brown."

"What?"

"If you want to see the girl again have your CSI's at the warehouse in one hour exactly. No cops."

"Is she alive?" Grissom asked quietly as he slowly picked up his evidence case.

"For now. Don't bring your weapons or else."

The line went dead.

"What the hell was that about?" Catherine asked as she came down the stairs.

Grissom looked up, his face was hollow and lacking emotion, "A call from her kidnappers. They want you, Warrick and Sara to go to an abandoned warehouse one mile past The Henderson Centre. No weapons."

Catherine raised an eyebrow, "Should we wait for-."

"No cops." Grissom relayed quietly, "One hour."

"Gil..."

"I know... I'm worried too. Go get Sara and Warrick. We have no choice."

Catherine nodded and left Grissom in the middle of the hallway with his thoughts. For a very long time he had put on a cold outer shell, it helped protect him against the harsh realities of the job. But now... the cold shell was melting away with his fear for the young girl. 

He also knew that he wasn't the only CSI thinking that.

The black CSI Tahoe sped down the open highway with Warrick at the wheel. The car was deadly quiet, no one dared to speak, fear weighed heavy in the air.

"You know." Sara said quietly, "This is the first time I'm not going to tell you to slow down."

"Thanks Sara." Warrick grinned slightly, "So... what's the chance that she's..." He gulped, "You know..."

"She'll be fine." Catherine said firmly, "She's got to be, or else why would they tell us to come out and meet them without any weapons?"

Sara began twiddling her fingers quickly in the backseat.

"Sara?!" Catherine said sharply, "Please tell me-."

"Hey you didn't say anything about no guns!" Sara snapped.

Warrick sighed, "Alright, leave it in the car, hopefully they won't search the Tahoe." As they passed the Henderson Civic Centre Warrick pressed the reset button and put the milage back to zero.

"Alright, one mile." Warrick said as the metre came on to one mile.

"Take a page out of my book." Catherine said.

"What?"

"Hit the breaks."

Warrick shrugged and hit the breaks, sending the Tahoe spinning and burning rubber. When at last the SUV stopped and the CSI's filed out, Sara was muttering darkly about Warrick's driving habits.

"Hey I remember that." Sara said, "The bunny case."

"Yeah." Catherine grinned, "Alright, we're supposed to follow the path down to the warehouse."

The three CSI's stood at the head of the path and stared down towards a warehouse as the sun began to set in the distance. Two black Mazda's were parked outside.

"Alright," Sara sighed, "Let's go."

They slowly walked down the dusty dirt path as the sun dipped below the horizon. Two men with long rifles stood in front of the warehouse doors. Sara's stomach dropped as screams came from within the warehouse, Catherine shivered and Warrick clenched his fists.

"You the cops?" The first man asked.

"Criminalists." Catherine replied coldly, "Is she in there?"

Neither man replied, but the first one did bang his fist on the warehouse door, "Boss, they're here!"

The warehouse doors creaked open and the second man motioned for them to move forward.

"Inside, now."

Catherine, Sara and Warrick numbly complied and slowly walked into the small one roomed warehouse. There was a single light that swung from the roof, creating a single beam of light down to the cement floor where a pool of blood seeped away from A body. 

Steve Anderson.


	15. Chapter 15

He stood over Amy, the young girl was on her knees, a gun pointed at the back of her head. Blood pooled around her from an open wound on her leg, long purple bruises covered her arms and legs.

"What have you done to her?" Catherine demanded.

"Oh...nothing." Steve Anderson smiled wryly, "We just had a nice little talk about where she was hiding it."

"What are you talking about?" Sara asked bitterly.

"Get......out..." Amy was barely audible even in the dead quiet warehouse. 

"Shut up bitch!" Anderson yelled, he kicked Amy in the ribs and sent the girl sprawling to the ground, a satisfying crunch came from her ribs.

"Hey!" Warrick cried, "Leave her alone!"

Steve Anderson grinned and released the trigger lock on his gun with it still pointed at Amy's head. The young girl coughed as blood poured from an open wound. Sara raised an eyebrow as she saw a silver chain fall from the young girl's neck and land in the pool of blood.

"You." Anderson pointed at Sara, "You're coming with us." The young woman glanced over at Catherine at Warrick who gave her a brief nod, "Come on, I don't have all day." Anderson snapped, "You come with me unless you want this girl to die right here and now."

Sara exhaled deeply and stepped nervously forward. One of the men that had been guarding the front entrance grabbed Sara roughly by the shoulders and pushed a gun into her back before leading her out the door. The sound of a car starting and then peeling away from the warehouse echoed throughout the night.

Steve Anderson grinned sinfully, pulled Amy to her feet and jammed his gun under her chin, "Where is it?"

"I... don't know what your talking about." Amy said weakly.

"Don't lie to me you slut!" Anderson shouted, "Tell me where they are now!"

"I...don't...." Amy couldn't finish her sentence, darkness clouded her vision and engulfed her mind in to an unconscious state. Steve Anderson grinned wickedly.

"Fine then..." He kept the gun near Amy's head as he backed away from the centre of the room and towards the back entrance, "Tell your supervisor that his CSI will be returned all in due time."

He was gone out the door, leaving Warrick and Catherine alone in the dark warehouse, they could hear the second black Mazda bolt from the warehouse and down the highway, into the darkness of Las Vegas.

"Oh my god..." Catherine whispered quietly, "Oh...my god."

  
  


Minutes later, Catherine and Warrick stood outside the warehouse and explained to Brass what had happened while Grissom and Nick began checking for evidence. It was Nick who found the blood stained chain lying in the pool of blood.

"Hey Gris, does this look familiar to you?" He held up the chain with a pair of tweezers and let the chain dangle freely, an old fashioned key which hung on it was stained coppery red from the blood. 

Grissom walked forward and knelt down beside Nick, "It looks like Amy's"

"But the design on the key," Nick said slowly, 'Does that look familiar to you? I swear I've seen the same designs somewhere before..."

"I'm not sure," Grissom said slowly, "Something in the Walker house perhaps?" 

"Maybe..." Nick said slowly, "Just maybe."

"Alright." Grissom said standing up, "Finish processing this place and then head back to the lab."


	16. Chapter 16

1:16 am

Back at the Crime Lab.

  
  


Warrick sat down across from the lab rat Greg and raised an eyebrow, "No rock music, no magazines, no wearing evidence? I take it you heard about Sara."

Greg nodded glumly, "Who badly was Amy injured when you guys saw her?"

Warrick sighed sadly, "It was pretty bad, Couple broken ribs I'd say, she was bleeding heavily from a wound on her leg."

Greg shook his head, Warrick was certain that he had never seen the lab rat this serious before, it was proof about just how worried he was.

"Don't worry Greggo," Warrick said, "Sara will be fine." He looked around, "Got the results on that blood we got at the warehouse yet?"

"Yup." the lab rat pulled a sheet of paper out of the printer, "It matches Amy's, just like you thought it would. I compared the results from the warehouse from the different samples you and Sara took from the Anderson house. Some of the blood matches Amy's, some matches William Anderson and some of it matches Philip Morrisons but a lot of it is unknown."

"So Grissom was right..." Warrick said thoughtfully, "That room was the execution place."

"The fibres found in William Anderson's wounds are your everyday rope fibres, the kind used to hold up a tire swing. Can be found at any old hardware store."

"Great, Thanks Greggo!" Warrick said almost happily, "And don't worry it'll all turn out fine."

Back in Grissom's office Catherine, Nick and Grissom waited slightly impatiently for Warrick to arrive with the results of the blood samples. Tension ran high in the office, no one knew what to say, trying to comfort each other was a pointless waste of time. Everyone knew that Sara wouldn't be harmed, and if she was the chances of it being permanent were slight. But Amy... Warrick and Catherine had both seen it, she was bleeding badly, Steve Anderson had tortured her into talking when she had no idea what he wanted.

"Hey guys." Warrick said as he came in to the office.

"Hey, took your time." Nick said quietly.

"Not my fault the lab is backed up with work. Besides Im here now..." He tossed the file folder down in front of Grissom, "Blood in the room matches Amy's, there's also some of Morrisons and William Anderson's blood plus some unknown."

"So... what do we have?" Catherine asked quietly, "Blood samples that lead us in a circle and a key. How can we work with that?"

Grissom did a facial shrug, "We can't... all we can hope to do is go back to the crime scenes and look for any more evidence we may have missed."

"I still can't believe they took Sara..." Warrick muttered, "Damn, we should have done something...anything."

"There was nothing you could do." Grissom said quietly "Not without risking Amy's life. Besides, Sara didn't have to go with them. She's a strong CSI, she'll be fine."

Nick ignored that comment, "So... what do we do? Go back to the Walker house?"

"Looks like it," Warrick said, "Meet you guys out in the parking lot." Warrick and Nick left Grissom's office but Catherine stayed sitting where she was.

"What?" Grissom asked sharply.

"Do you have any emotions at all?" Catherine demanded in a dangerously quiet voice, "Sara has been kidnapped..."

"And Brass has an APB out on her..."

"A innocent 14 year old girl has been tortured, seen her father murdered and who knows what else, and we can't find her." Catherine said quietly, "Don't you feel anything about it?"

But Grissom couldn't find the right reply to this. Catherine stood up and turned her back to the supervisor, "I think Sara was right, I don't think you can feel anything."

She was gone, leaving Grissom in his office with nothing but his thoughts.


	17. Chapter 17

2:17 am

  
  


Walker Residence.

  
  


Catherine took out a pocket knife and put her hand up to the red tape that marked the entrance to a crime scene but she stopped. The red tape was ripped.

"Someone's been here." Catherine said quietly. Grissom quickly inspected the broken tape as Nick pulled out a camera and snapped off several shots of the doorknob. 

"Print it," The supervisor ordered, "Chances Steve Anderson has been back here, maybe looking for whatever he wanted from Amy."

Warrick quickly dusted the door handle while Brass went around to the other side of the house and checked to make sure Anderson hadn't come in a different way. After dusting the handle and taking the prints the CSI's slowly pushed through the open door and into the dusty house.

"There are foot prints in the dust." Nick said, "Someone was here not too long ago."

"Worth anything?" Grissom asked.

Nick shook his head, "Their smudged, whoever made them was carrying something heavier than a book."

"Up stairs..." Catherine muttered, "Amy's room..." The CSI's exchanged brief glances and slowly walked up the stairs and down the hall. Grissom's first instinct was to take the time and process the room for evidence but after taking a brief look around he realized that the closet door was slightly open. He made three short steps to the closet and opened the door.

"Sara!"

"Hey." The young CSI smiled weakly, "It's about time you guys showed up." Her hands were roped behind her back, a small cut ran across her left cheek bone and blood seeped away from another knife wound of her right arm.

"Are you alright?" Catherine asked as she leaned down to help Grissom cut away the rope that bound her wrists.

"Yeah..." Sara replied feebly, "Just a couple cuts and scrapes...." Her face was pale, "They still have Amy... they're going to kill her!"

"It's alright, we'll find her..." Grissom said quietly.

"No Grissom! You don't understand! The answer was right in front of us! The key Grissom!" 

"It's okay..." He whispered quietly, "I know."

Suddenly Sara slumped over on to the closet floor, the back f her shirt was soaked through with blood.

"Brass! Call an ambulance!" Grissom yelled, "Shit... Hold on Sara, we'll get you out of here."

"Hey Gris..." Warrick said from the other side of the room.

"Not now Warrick." Grissom snapped.

"No... you need to see this." Warrick replied firmly.

Grissom stood up and walked over to where Catherine, Warrick and Nick were now standing, facing one of the white washed walls.

'26 Hours' was written out in blood on the wall.

"An ambulance is on it's-." Brass stepped into the bed room and then froze when he saw the blood message, "Oh my god..."

"Cath, swab it, Warrick, get me an evidence bag, a big one." Grissom ordered, "Nick, watch over Sara, make sure she doesn't get any worse."

Grissom pulled out a small brown evidence envelope and carefully removed the old fashioned key and chain that had been hanging around Amy's neck with his gloved hand. The Supervisor slowly walked up to the clear glass cabinet that held the porcelain oriental doll and placed the key in the lock. A satisfying click came from within the mechanism, Grissom smiled to himself and carefully removed the delicate doll. In the distance the sound of ambulance siren's began to grow louder as they approached.


	18. Chapter 18

3:28 a.m.

  
  


Warrick paced hurriedly up and down the hallway of the emergency room, Catherine and Nick sat across from each other in the irritatingly hard hospital chairs, Grissom sat away from the group while he tried to put his thoughts in order. Sara had been in surgery for just over an hour, so far there had been no word on her condition.

"So." Nick said slowly, "You want to tell us what's so significant about the doll Gris?"

"Not really," Grissom said, "Not yet at least."

Nick shrugged and said nothing, the tension ran high in the air around the Criminalists. Fear was the most common thing in all of them, fears for Sara, fears for Amy, Fear that they wouldn't find her on time . . . That Steve Anderson would kill her.

"Mr. Grissom?" Grissom looked up to see the doctor standing in front of him, "Ms. Sidle is out of surgery, she's doing fine but she will have to stay away from work for a while."

Warrick chuckled, "Sara away from work? Good luck with that."

The doctor raised an eyebrow and adjusted his half moon glasses, "Workaholic? Well, it's best that she stays here for at least a week. The knife wound on her back was fairly deep, Fortunately it missed any vital organs. She'll have a full recovery, just a very slow one."

Grissom sighed in relief, "Thank you doctor."

"I suggest you all go back to work. Ms. Sidle won't be awake for another few hours." The doctor looked sternly at the other CSI's, "Don't worry about her, try to find that little girl, It's all over the news and everyone wants her to come back alive."

"Don't worry Doctor," Catherine said as she walked up to Grissom, "We'll get her back."

  
  


3:56 a.m.

  
  


Back at the crime lab, Grissom, Catherine, Nick, Warrick and Brass sat around a table in the evidence room. Every last piece they had gathered was strewn out before them on the lit up table. The oriental doll was in the centre of it all.

"So . . . are you going to tell us what's with the doll now?" Nick asked as Grissom entered the glassed in room.

"Yes." The supervisor replied sharply, "Warrick, hand me that scalpel." 

Warrick did, Grissom carefully over turned the fragile doll and ran it down the back of the doll. The delicate cloth separated from the icy blades smooth movement, everyone in the room gasped as Grissom overturned the doll. Hundreds of colourful jewels no larger than garden pebbles poured out from inside the doll and onto the evidence table.

"Oh my god . . . " Nick muttered, "There must be . . . "

"2.3 mil . . . " Catherine finished, "The missing jewels from the original Anderson case . . . "

"So . . . " Brass said, "What does this mean, Amy had the jewels?"

Grissom shook his head, "No, listen to this. 14 years ago Steve and William Anderson robbed a bank vault, making off with 2.3 million dollars in small jewels. Before they were captured by the police they gave the jewels to David Walker to hide, he probably didn't know what they were used for and so agreed to hide them in the doll. So the police find William, send im to jail and let Steve go free because there's no proof against him. Five years later, Steve Anderson wants the jewels back but David Walker knows where they came from so he refuses to give them up. So Steve Anderson hires mob hit men and has them kill Amy's mother as a warning. David Walker begins installing security systems for the house. He begins spending less time at home in hope of keeping Steve Anderson away but it doesn't work."

"I see where this is going." Catherine said, "Steve Anderson became Amy's god father so he wanted to put off harming her as long as possible so he killed Philip Morrison in hope of scaring David Walker, but that didn't work so he kidnaps Amy and her father."

Grissom nodded, "Steve Anderson assumed that David Walker told Amy about the jewels and so killed him."

"But that doesn't explain why Steve Anderson didn't just kill her right there." Warrick said, "Why did he wait?"

"Because," Nick said, "His brother William was supposed to be the hit man, he had just gotten out of prison and was supposed to go and kill Amy."

"Why didn't he?" Brass asked.

"He was her ex-godfather," Catherine explained, "He didn't have the heart to so he left her."

"And so Steve Anderson killed his brother." Grissom said quietly, "But now Amy was living under his roof.... dammit, we handed her to him..."

"And now we have less than 25 hours to find him before he kills her..." Catherine said quietly, "The man's insane..."

"He'll kill her..." Nick said slowly, "Now that we have the jewels. Even if she did know where they were, it's too late."

"Brass," Grissom said, "Tell your men to start checking all the abandoned warehouses in the Henderson area, Chances are he's going to try and make it as dramatic as possible."

"So what can we do?" Warrick asked, "There's nothing pointing us in any specific direction."

"We wait," Grissom said sadly, "It's all we can do."

"I'm going to contact Amy's school later on," Nick said, "See if I an get any more info that might be useful."

"I've talked to her teacher once," Catherine said, "She said that Amy is...or was, really bright, probably could have skipped a few grades if she wanted to..."

"But she didn't..." Nick replied, "Out of... fear of standing out even more maybe?"

"Seems most likely," Warrick said, "It's going to be hard to avoid standing out after this though."

"Alright," Grissom sighed out of frustration, "From here on it we're working against the clock, Go over every single piece of evidence as best as you can. Don't miss anything, we don't have much time left."

"I've put an ABP out on the car that Steve Anderson was last seen driving," Brass explained, "I've got all my people checking the abandoned warehouses in Vegas, but it'll be hard getting to all of them in a day."

"Just do your best." Grissom said, "That's all I can ask."


	19. Chapter 19

It was just past midnight when she woke up, cold sweat streamed down her face and into her eyes, her heart beat faster than it ever had before. Amy knew he was there. She carefully removed the covers of her bed and stepped onto the carpeted floor. She quickly changed from her pajamas into a pair of old jeans and a blue T-shirt. Her ears perked up, someone was coming up the stairs. She quickly reached under her pillow and grasped the cold metal of a dagger. She moved swiftly over to her open window and looked down, the pale moon light emitted a glow off of the pavement below her window, a man dressed in all black waited there . . . waited for her. Suddenly the door to her room swung open and Steve Anderson entered, a gun in hand pointed at her head.

"You're coming with me." He snarled, "Now."

"In your dreams!" Amy yelled back as she adjusted the grip she had on the dagger which was hidden behind her back. He advanced toward her quickly, the gun still pointed at her head, Amy moved quicker than he expected for someone who had just seen her father murdered a few days ago, and yet Steve Anderson was faster, he grabbed the hand that carried the knife and pulled the young girl in front of him, causing her to drop the dagger.

"You think you can get away from me?" 

He placed a rag over her face, chloroform drenched, before she had a chance to wriggle her way free the darkness overcame her.

9:18 a.m.

  
  


Grissom's eyes snapped open, sweat poured down his face. He had been in his office and then drifted off into sleep. All his energy was quickly being depleted, he felt drained and weary, this case bothered him. It wasn't often that the victims he dealt with were alive, it was even less likely that the living victim would touch him that much.

"Gil?" Catherine stood in the door way of his office, "You alright?"

"Yeah," Grissom replied, "Just thinking..."

Catherine nodded slightly and sat down on the other side of the desk, "Listen, about what I said before..."

"It's alright Cath," Grissom interrupted, "You really gave me things to think about..."

Catherine smiled, "Well, can you think bout them later? We've got some problems with returning the jewels to the original owners."

He raised an eyebrow, "What kind of problems?"

Catherine sighed and rubbed her eyes, "You name it, these people got word that we found their missing jewels and they came down here like a heard of buffalo. They're creating a riot."

Grissom exhaled heavily, "Great, that's all we need." He stood up from his desk, "Shall we?"

Catherine gave Grissom an almost begging look and then nodded gravely. The two Criminalists walked from Grissom's office and down the long hallway into the foyer of the Criminalistics lab. A large group of thirteen or fourteen people crowded around Nick and Warrick who were desperately trying to calm the crowd.

"Hey people! People!" Grissom raised his voice over the crowd, "Now I understand that your all very anxious to get your jewels returned but these things take time."

Nick and Warrick flashed Grissom grateful smiles as the crowd of people turned around to face Grissom. A bald middle aged man stepped forward and faced Grissom.

"Well how long is it going to take?" The bald man asked impatiently, "We've been waiting here for hours!"

"Sir, these jewels are evidence in a murder and kidnapping case," Nick said quickly, "They're very important and will be returned to you in due time."

A robust woman with flaming red hair and bright red lipstick came forward, "Well when it's all done I'd like to have a long talk with whoever's been keeping them for all these years."

Catherine could feel her anger boiling up, "Well ma'am, when the young girl is saved from her kidnappers and taken care of in the hospital then we'll let you thank her for not telling the thieves where the jewels were before while she watched her father get murdered."

That made the woman back down and melt into the crowd.

"Listen," Grissom said in a dangerously quiet voice, "I know how much you personal items mean to you but this is a very important investigation and when we're finished processing your jewels and you fill out the proper forms, then you can have them back."

Grissom let out a weary sigh of relief, 15 more hours... He walked slowly back to his office, leaving Catherine, Nick and Warrick with the large crowd of people. Brass's men hadn't come up with anything, there were no reports of suspicious activity, and they were swiftly losing time. 


	20. Chapter 20

1:21 p.m.

  
  


"Sara?"

"She's waking up!"

"Thank god."

"Hey Sara" Catherine grinned as the young CSI opened her eyes.

"Hey," Sara replied weakly

"You had us really worried there for a while, Sidle." Brass said with a joking gleam in his eyes, "Good to see your back with reality."

Sara grinned, "Thank Brass, so what did I miss?"

The CSI's exchanged brief glances, "Uh, nothing much really." Nick replied hastily, "In fact..."

"You haven't found her yet." Sara said quietly, "Did you get the jewels?"

Catherine nodded quickly, "Yeah, we got them, Grissom's back at the crime lab dealing with a bunch of grouchy owners."

Sara smiled feebly, "We're running out of time." She said, "Anderson is going to kill her..."

"I've got all my men out checking the abandoned warehouses in Vegas." Brass said, "So far they haven't come up with anything."

Sara shook her head, "He won't be in a warehouse yet... chances are he'll be at some hideout..." she cringed at a thought, "Probably torturing her..."

Nick suppressed a queasy feeling and sighed, "Sick bastard... Makes you wonder what possesses someone to do that? Harm or even take away another human life."

"People do strange things when they're in the position to do stuff that's against their nature." Catherine said quietly, "We know why Steve Anderson did it, but why he keeps doing it is another thing."

"Revenge." Warrick said simply, "Maybe he just feels the needs to show us that he wont be crossed by someone he knows and just let it go. He's determined to get revenge on the Walker family even if it means killing everyone in it."

Catherine shook her head sadly, "If something doesn't show up soon then he may just succeed..."

"Let's not think about that right now." Brass said, "It's only going to bring the mood of the room down even more."

"I just cant help wondering how Amy was so easy about everything..." Nick said, "Her father dying, living on her own, it's like... she doesn't feel anything."

Catherine smiled at that phrase.

"What?" Sara asked.

"I told Grissom that he doesn't have any emotions." Catherine replied cheekily with a smirk on her face.

"You did what?" Brass's jaw dropped with shock, "What did he do?"

"Nothing," Catherine replied simply, "He just kind of stared at me, like I was one of his bugs that was posing a puzzle on some big case."

"Wow, that was a bit harsh don't you think?" Nick asked.

Catherine looked quizzical, "Maybe, but at the same time I think he deserved it. After all, I'm sure none of us can say that this case hasn't effected us emotionally and yet Grissom walks around like it's nothing, like it's something that happens every day."

"That's just his way of dealing with things," Brass replied, "But yeah, he can be a bit cold at times."

Warrick looked down at his watch, "Hey Nick, Brass, we'd better get going if we want to go to Amy's school and talk to the kids there."

"Alright," Nick replied, "See ya later Sara, have fun laying on your back eating hospital food."

Sara scowled at her fellow CSI and said nothing.


End file.
